Delta Portfolio
XVII Commonwealth Games
The City of Manchester Stadium will be the
centrepiece of the XVIII Commonwealth Games and Delta Sound Inc are
honoured to be the chosen sound company to design and supply the
complete sound systems for the spectacular opening and closing
ceremonies as well as the exciting ten days of competition - between 72
nations – a true celebration amongst the commonwealth community.
Jack Morton World Wide won the contract to produce the opening and
closing ceremonies for the Games and approached Delta Sound Inc some 18
months ago. Delta Sound took a brief and started to discuss and design
an audio system to accommodate the scale of the events. Not long after,
Delta Sound started talks with M2002 - the organisers of the
Commonwealth Games - to discuss their varying sound needs for the
competition.
Paul Keating, managing director of Delta Sound and sound designer for
both systems has spent much of the past 18 months travelling between
Delta Sound’s HQ in Kingston-Upon-Thames and Manchester. Working
closely with both clients, Jack Morton World Wide & M2002, Paul
designed and fulfilled a brief to suit all parties, creating a clear,
structured and flexible system to accommodate the needs of the
ceremonies, whilst keeping in mind the audio needs for the games
themselves.
The vision for the opening and closing ceremonies has changed
tremendously over the past 18 months. What were going to be large live
orchestral lead visual experiences, have now shifted to more modern day
themed and composed shows, using contemporary pre-recorded modern and
dance music, with a strong flavour of the Manchester music scene,
accompanied by spectacular live entertainment and visual effects, thus
having to accommodate an immense amount of playback.
The in ear monitoring system for the ceremonies has been supplied by
Sennheiser, in fact their competitive delivery and price options made
them a firm favourite with Delta Sound, supplying the 1,200 Evolution
300 series in-ear monitoring systems without a hitch. These units are
being shared between the cast of nearly 4,000, which prompted the
purchase of 3,500 Sennheiser in-ear transducers. Four different mixes
are being transmitted to these units, via four separate RF frequencies.
The 38,000 seat stadium, which will provide a spectacular backdrop to
the Games, needed a 360_ distributed sound system for all events. The
permanent seating for the North Stand of this brand new stadium, has
purposely been left unfinished, until after the games. In its place a
specifically build a larger temporary grandstand stands proud, to
accommodate the extra crowds expected for the UK’s biggest ever
sporting event.
Delta Sound, an L’Acoustics V-Dosc partner, has utilised their complete
stocks of V-Dosc and DV-Dosc Line Array cabinets, accompanied by the
SB218 V-Dosc subs all being used for the main sound reinforcement
systems. Four L’Acoustic arrays have been set up specifically to
accommodate the temporary North Stand, which alone seats 12,000 people.
Each one of the four arrays includes 8-9 V-Dosc loudspeakers, 4 DV-Dosc
and 2 SB218 cabinets. For both ceremonies 15 specially designed carts
have been built for the purpose of carrying 4 DV-Dosc and 1 SB218 sub.
These carts are located on the pitch and face the lower tiers of
seating.
Delta Sound, also known for their large stock of D&B loudspeaker
products, has supplied audio for the upper level seating in the fashion
of 27 separate D&B hanging arrays using their 402, C4 and C7
loudspeakers. Paul Keating worked closely with Ralf Zuleeg, from
D&B, to come up with the best combination for these arrays, field
testing several options on a very cold, wet and windy February day.
Over 160 D&B cabinets are in use around the stadium, including the
D&B E3, which along with Electro Voice EVS40s are used for under
balcony delays and fills. During the actual games, the specially
designed front fill carts can not be utalised, therefore a more
conventional method has been adopted, incorporating D&B C6 and C9
cabinets, located just in front of the first row of seats.
Wigwam Acoustics, the Lancashire based rental company who are also an
L’Acoustics partner and carry large stocks of D&B loudspeakers,
have supplied and supported Delta Sound throughout the build up to the
Games and supplemented equipment of both brands, allowing Delta Sound
to fulfill the demanding and extensive needs for these ten exhilarating
days.
A further 16 EAW KF600 loudspeakers have been supplied for both
ceremonies and are located just behind each front fill cart, to provide
fold back for the main central performance area. In addition, 32
L’Acoustics FM115s monitors can bee found on various central stages
around the grounds.
Mark Underwood, of the Delta Sound engineering team and Audio Project
Manager for the ceremonies and games, has been responsible for
designing the large BSS Soundweb network, linking Delta’s complete
audio installation, using 32 units with a fibre optic infrastructure -
which was specified by Delta Sound and installed by Kelsay Acoustics.
With the generous support and help from David Smalley of BSS Audio,
this is one of the most extensive temporary Soundweb installations ever
designed. Furthermore Mark has been responsible for setting up a radio
lan network which has been used to set delays and eq remotely from
anywhere in the stadium.
Amplification is provided by a mixture of D&B and Lab Gruppen,
while XTA control and equalisation has been used extensively throughout
the design of the system.
A complete onsite studio has also been designed, supplied and installed
by Delta Sound, for use by Julian Scott, who has composed several
pieces for both the opening and closing ceremonies. Julian is using a
Logic Audio system allowing him to work on pre production and real time
mixes on site and to handle the daily and hourly changes that arrived
throughout the pre-production process.
Delta Sound is the first company to invest in Otari’s new exciting ND20
technology. The ND20 is a fibre optic system which for the games, will
allow up to 96 channels of digital audio, to go from front of house to
the studio some 800 metres away.
Two Midas Heritage 3000s are employed for monitoring and live
engineering and one Heritage 1000 for submixing. All replay is via
Tascam 2424 hard disk players. More new technology can be found front
of house, with the latest Yamaha DM2000 digital desk, which is being
used to dynamically mix the source material from the Tascam 2424s. The
DM2000 also accommodates the constantly changing and vast range of
musical styles, that will be played during the ceremonies, from opera,
to hip hop and orchestral to pop.
Delta Sound are also supplying several different stage management
production areas around the stadium with monitors, networked and
running the latest V-net software, allowing them to view timeline and
waveform displays.
Finally Delta Sound were also contracted to supply wired and wireless
communications for both ceremonies. To achieve this they designed a
combined system using the Telex Zeus matrix, which comprises of 200
eight channel wireless coms, with 40 matrix panels, and a further 50
wired Clear-Com beltpacks - mainly for use by the lighting and follow
spot operators. This is achieved by a BSS Soundweb network, which
interfaces with the matrix system.
As well as Paul Keating’s 18 months of travels, meetings, designs,
travels, quotes, changes, redesigns, travels and finally installation,
the Delta Sound team have been on site at The City of Manchester
Stadium since 1st July. Working around the clock, they have installed
this sophisticated and flexible temporary installation in just three
and a half weeks.
Ten days of pure entertainment, competition and exhilaration lay ahead
of us. It wont only be the athletes who are exhausted at the end of
these games, but also the hard working and dedicated engineering team
behind Paul Keating and Delta Sound Inc.
Sound Designer and Managing Director – Paul Keating
Engineer and System Infrastructure Design – Mark Underwood
Production Sound Engineer - Jim Lambert
Stewart Chaney – System Technician
Jim Ebden – FOH Engineer (known within the touring industry for his work with Sting, S Club 7 and Van Hallen).
Plus the UK’s top 15-20 freelance sound technicians – hand picked for their dedication and stamina!
The City of Manchester Stadium will be the centrepiece of the XVIII Commonwealth Games and Delta Sound Inc are honoured to be the chosen sound company to design and supply the complete sound systems for the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies as well as the exciting ten days of competition - between 72 nations – a true celebration amongst the commonwealth community.
